Ballerina’s workout is carefully choreographed
The Sugar Plum Fairy from “The Nutcracker” is one of those quintessential ballerina roles: She is lithe, feminine, delicate, dressed in a frilly tutu with a jeweled tiara. But she also must have powerful quadriceps to whip out a string of pirouettes, toned inner thigh muscles for a polished turnout and the stamina to last through an entire ballet.
That explains why Tanya Durbin is ending a long day of ballet class and rehearsals with a workout at a Costa Mesa fitness club. In just a few days, she’ll be playing the Sugar Plum Fairy in a “Nutcracker” performance with the Long Beach Ballet Arts Center, a role that requires enormous stamina to get through a technically demanding pas de deux and solo. “This is where the gym helps me,” she says, “The choreography is very challenging, energy-wise. Your adrenaline is pumping at light speed and you have to remember to breathe.” She rattles off the most challenging portions: Saut de chat leaps, double attitude turns on pointe, quick and precise footwork, and four dramatic lifts for which she must stay balanced, or risk toppling over. Oh, and then there’s making it all look incredibly easy.
She’s part of a generation of dancers that understands training doesn’t have to stop at the ballet studio. To increase their athleticism and endurance they may have to supplement dance with weights, cardio, swimming and yoga. Dancers also have turned to Pilates to recover from serious injuries or to prevent the kind of damage, caused by years of grueling training, that can prematurely end careers.
For Durbin, who is in her mid-20s, extra workouts have helped her lose weight, boost her energy during ballet class and develop a body that, while muscular, also conforms to the dancer’s aesthetic of thin, graceful elegance.
It’s taken Durbin, whose resume includes stints with the Joffrey Ballet and the San Francisco Ballet, several years to perfect her routine, in the process becoming an expert at understanding her body’s response to exercise and diet. Her regimen has been carefully calculated and crafted to burn fat and give her more energy to dance and build muscle.
She usually starts with several minutes of stretching, then progresses to 30 to 60 minutes of cardio on the elliptical trainer, stationary bike or treadmill, and finishes with light weights. The gym is usually her last stop of the day, after spending hours taking or teaching ballet class and rehearsing for a performance.
Tonight she arrives at the gym in Costa Mesa sporting a lavender tank top and track pants, her long, brown hair held in a loose bun with a rhinestone hair clip. Durbin’s weight routine is uncomplicated and brief, working with low weights (nothing heavier than 5-pound dumbbells) and high reps, targeting only biceps and triceps with a tiny bit of shoulder thrown in.
“I want to build up my triceps so it doesn’t hang here,” she says, tugging at that little strip of upper arm flesh. “For a ballerina I’m pretty ripped. I’m lean but not bulky. If you work that deltoid too much, when you lift your arms like this,” she says, raising them above her head, “it looks like you have football neck.”
Durbin came to this routine after dislocating her knee during a ballet class about seven years ago. Surgery was advised but she turned instead to her father, a chiropractor, who helped her heal. While out of commission, however, she gained 20 pounds, a hefty amount for her someone who is 5 feet, 5 inches tall and typically keeps her weight at 105 pounds.
She went to a gym to drop the weight, but acknowledges not having a clue about what to do: “I didn’t know about raising my heart rate and keeping it there,” she says while pedaling on a stationary bike. “I didn’t understand how to get rid of fat or what I needed to put in my body.”
After asking trainers and nutritionists “tons of questions” she settled on a minimum half-hour of moderately taxing cardio three to five times a week, plus weights. Soon, getting through a ballet class wasn’t as difficult. Other dancers asked about the routine, and she was only too happy to offer advice.
Durbin also cut back on simple carbs such as bread and pasta. Meals consist of salads, fish and poached eggs, eaten in small portions throughout the day. And yes, she cheats. Every day. Often it’s a Frappuccino, sometimes a latte and biscotti. A little chocolate gets thrown into the mix for quick energy.
“You have to cheat because there’s no way you can maintain that deprivation,” Durbin says. Moderation is the key. “If I have to have a piece of bread, I’ll tear out the middle and just eat the crust. Or have croutons.”
There is carb-loading -- a lot of it. After a show, Durbin writes a list of everything she plans to eat. Kraft Macaroni and Cheese usually makes it to the No. 1 spot, with steak, mashed potatoes and pie following closely. “I don’t even think twice about it,” she says with a note of defiance in her voice. Durbin also cuts back on her demanding training routine when she’s not rehearsing or performing. Sometimes she’ll just take a ballet class, or do some cardio at the gym, or take a Pilates or yoga class. A few days of serious couch-potatoing forces her body to rest: “I think I’m going to be able to dance longer because of that,” she says, “because I’m not putting my body through that wear and tear.”
Yet gym workouts and yoga classes for ballet students aren’t always favored by teachers and company directors. David Wilcox, artistic director of the Long Beach Ballet Arts Center, says that for younger students, training in the studio should be enough. “My students could be using some piece of exercise equipment and be doing totally the opposite of what they should be doing for the muscle tone and coordination needed for classical ballet,” he says. “I’ve seen it happen before. They spend half an hour on the StairMaster every day and all of a sudden they’ve built up all the wrong muscles.”
Durbin is back in the studio the next day, rehearsing the Sugar Plum Fairy role with partner David Hovhannisyan. Watching her up close, it’s easy to appreciate how Durbin makes arduous solos look so effortless. After nearly two hours she has that dancer’s glow and is just a little out of breath. Where to next? Lunch, then to the Jimmie DeFore Dance Center in Costa Mesa to teach a class. And then, back to the gym.
“I want to dance until I can’t do another plie, until my body goes snap, crackle and pop,” she says, laughing. “You shed a lot of tears in ballet, but I’m glad I got out of shape. It’s been an incredible gift to me.”
